The combined wind- and wave-utilization plant includes fluid flow machines for utilization of both flow energies, which in general, must always be disposed in the direction of the wind. It is therefore advisable to install the fluid flow engines jointly on a floating carrier, which, being rotatably anchored, is automatically set into the wind.
Based on the state of the art, until today, cost-effective large plants for utilization of the wind- or wave-energy have not yet become known. Causes for the absence of any cost-effective large plants for the utilization of wind- and wave-energy are the fluctuating forces of the wind. Even on the windy north sea coast a large plant can provide full output only during about ninety days of the year. The plant is non-operating for the same time, as the minimal wind strength 6 for operating the plant is absent. As the generator output increases with an increasing number of revolutions, slow rotors, like windmills and American wind wheels, are no longer cost-effective for generation of larger currents. Rapidly rotating propellers, however, require larger wind strengths.
But several experiments have hitherto been undertaken, also for the utilization of waves, where particularly floats suspended from a pendulum suspension have been utilized.